MirCorp has slated another flight to Mir
later this year as investors have
committed to a second round of
funding. The second mission will bring
hardware to Mir to set up an Internet
portal in space for data content
delivery.
(MirCorp)

As the cosmonauts opened the door to the Mir station,
MirCorp President Jeffrey Manber announced that they had
secured a second round of financing. Investments from Dr.
Chirinjeev Kathuria and Gold & Appel have made possible a
second manned mission in September and an extension of
the current mission beyond the original 40 days. The
additional capital assures that the station will stay in orbit
and will be renovated for commercial use.
- Frontier Status 04/07/00 - By Dale M. Gray
(Frontier Historical Consultants)

On Thursday, April 6, cosmonauts Sergei Zalyotin and Alexander
Kaleri docked their Soyuz spacecraft with the Mir space station, which had
been unoccupied for 223 days. This is the first ever human spaceflight
funded by a private organization, MirCorp. The Netherlands-based company
hopes to earn money from a variety of activities including advertising,
conducting scientific experiments under contract, and perhaps even tourism.
This mission is expected to last at least 45 days, but will probably be
extended if additional funding is provided by MirCorp.

Enterprise (OV-101):
used for Approach and Landing Tests,
the Enterprise now is property of the Smithsonian Institution and is at
Dulles Airport, Virginia.
Columbia (OV-102):
the first operational orbiter, STS-1 first
launched on 12 April 1981. Columbia has completed 26 flights to date.
The space shuttle Columbia was named after a sloop captained by Robert Gray.
In May 1792, Gray maneuvered the ship through perilous inland waters to
explore the Pacific Northwest.
Challenger (OV-099):
the second orbiter, flew 10 missions between 1983
and 1986 for a combined total of 69 days in space. On January 28, 1986,
Challenger and her crew were lost in a launch accident.
Discovery (OV-103):
the third orbiter, Discovery has flown 26 missions since its maiden voyage
on August 30, 1984.
Atlantis: (OV-104):
Atlantis has flown 20 missions since its first
launch on October 3, 1985. Atlantis is currently being upgraded
and is scheduled to return to KSC on August 24, 1998.
Endeavour: (OV-105):
Replacing the Challenger and completing the 4-orbiter
space shuttle fleet, Endeavour has flown 14 missions since its first launch
on May 5, 1992.

Launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis on a mission to the International
Space Station has been delayed until at least May 18. Three launch
attempts in late April were cancelled because of bad weather either at the
Florida launch site or at potential emergency landing areas. Facilities at
Cape Canaveral are now needed for the launch of several satellites. May 18
is the earliest date for another shuttle launch attempt. Atmospheric drag
continues to lower the orbit of the ISS. If the shuttle is not able to
launch soon to boost its orbit, the space station will need to use some of
its own limited fuel supply to raise itself to a safe altitude.

Mission STS-101
will be the first Shuttle flight to the
International Space Station (ISS) in almost a year. Six Americans and one
Russian will spend six days docked to the Station to conduct maintenance
work on the Unity and Zarya modules and to transfer a ton of logistical
supplies for use by the first resident crew which will occupy the ISS
later this year.

The next Space Shuttle flight, mission STS-101, to launch on April 13, 2000, will be
the first Shuttle flight to the International Space Station in almost a year.
Six Americans and one Russian will spend six days docked to the Station to conduct
maintenance work on the Unity and Zarya modules and to transfer a ton of logistical
supplies for use by the first resident crew which will occupy the ISS later this year.
-
NASA Station Status - March 9, 2000

The Zvezda Service Module

The
Zvezda Service Module
will be launched atop a Proton rocket to serve as the early living
quarters for the first permanent residents of the ISS and will take over
control and propulsion capability for the expanding station from the Zarya
module which was launched in November 1999.

About 9 days after the launch of the Zvezda module, the ISS will link up with
Zvezda using Zarya's jet thrusters during a series of rendezvous maneuvers.

Updated: 15 March 2000 - by Gregory A. Smith

NASA's chief Daniel Goldin, speaking at the Space
Frontier Foundation Conference September 24, announced
a new plan for NASA to turn operation of the Space Station
over to private enterprise -- perhaps within the next decade.

After a period of five to ten years of operation, NASA
would be willing to hand its portion of the station over to
private industry. The move would free NASA to
concentrate on exploring the solar system. NASA would
retain a major presence on the station, but as a tenant.
Under NASA's current plan, NASA retains control of the
station while leasing up to 30 percent or more of the station
to commercial ventures. - Excerpt from
FRONTIER STATUS 09/24/99
- by Dale M. Gray
with permission
Frontier Status reports are weekly updates chronicling
progress of the emerging space frontier.
Frontier Status archives are hosted at
www.cortesi.com/frontier

Zarya was successfully launched by the Russians on November 20, 1998,
from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan,
not far from where
Yuri Gagarin
became the first human to be launched into space over 37 years ago.

The Galileo spacecraft has completed its prime mission, its first extended
mission and has now begun its second extended mission called the
"Galileo Millennium Mission."

The Future of the Galileo Mission

NASA Headquarters has agreed in principle to extend the Galileo mission past its
planned January 31 finale. Details of funding and itinerary for the new extended
mission, to be called the Galileo Millennium Mission, must still be resolved. A
Europa encounter took place January 3, 2000, and is technically still part of the
current, extended Galileo Europa Mission. Another Io flyby is planned for
February 20, with flybys of Ganymede on May 20 and December 28, and joint
observations of Jupiter with the Cassini spacecraft in December 2000.
- "Galileo News" - January 3, 2000

Updated: 15 March 2000 - by Gregory A. Smith

Model of Europa's Subsurface Structure

Mars Global Surveyor
Mars orbiter

Launched:
7 November 1996

Mars Arrival:
12 September 1997

Start of Mapping Mission:
8 March 1999
End of Primary Mission:
January 2001
End of Data Relay Mission:
January 2003

The NEAR satellite continued to operate nominally this past week in orbit
around the asteroid Eros.

NEAR is in a 200.6 Km by 209.1 Km orbit around Eros. NEAR will stay in this orbit
conducting Science observations until April 2,2000 when an Orbit Correction
Maneuver will place NEAR in a 200 Km x 100 Km transfer orbit.
-
MISSION OPERATIONS: March 10, 2000

The completely successful Lunar Prospector mission ended July 31, 1999 after
mapping the Moon's geochemistry from orbit and delivering the ashes of renowned
planetary scientist Eugene M. Shoemaker to the surface of the Moon. The
spacecraft ended its mission with a targeted impact in a permanently shadowed
crater near the south pole, at -87.7 deg latitude, 42 deg longitude.

SPACE UPDATE will continue to provide links and updates regarding the ongoing
scientific analysis of data garnered from the Lunar Prospector mission for one
year from the end of mission.

On March 5th, 1998 Lunar Prospector project scientist announced that
the Lunar Prospector had returned data that indicates that there is a
high probability of
water ice existing at both the north and south poles of the Moon.
The presence of a significant amount of water on the Moon could be
important in the establishment of human communities beyond Earth.

This week an Orbiter Science Operations Working Team (OSOWT) telecon was held to
focus on the period from -10 days to Jupiter closest approach. Science Teams were
assigned to develop the detailed designs for observations to be made during the
December flyby of Jupiter.

During the upcomping Jupiter flyby, the Cassini spacecraft will make coordinated
measurements with the Galileo spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter.

The Cassini spacecraft will arrive on orbit around Saturn in 2004.
Cassini will study the great ringed planet, its moons and ring system for
at least four years. It will also deliver a scientific probe called Huygens
which will parachute to the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan.

On July 18, 1998, the Nozomi spacecraft took its first picture,
a beautiful image of the Earth and Moon.

The Japanese "Nozomi" Mars probe was successfully launched on July 3, 1998
from the Kagoshima space center in Japan. Unfortunately, the spacecraft used
more propellant than planned in a course correction maneuver on 21 December 1998
after a 20 December Earth flyby left the craft with "insufficient acceleration".
The good news is: Nozomi will reach Mars. The bad news: the arrival of Nozomi
at Mars has been delayed four years from its originally scheduled rendezvous in
1999. The spacecraft will continue in a heliocentric orbit until it encounters
Mars in December of 2003.

Nozomi is the first Japanese space mission to Mars.
It is also the first non-U.S. or Russian space flight to another body
in the solar system.

A Mars orbiting aeronomy mission, Nozomi is designed to study the martian upper
atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind.
Instruments on the spacecraft will
measure the structure, composition and dynamics of the ionosphere, aeronomy effects
of the solar wind, the escape of atmospheric constituents, the structure of the
magnetosphere, and dust in the upper atmosphere and in orbit around Mars. The
mission will also be returning images of Mars' surface and the martian moons
Phobos and Deimos.

The nominal mission is planned for
one Martian year (approximately two Earth years). An extended mission may allow
operation of the mission well beyond the original two years.

Deep Space 1 mission controllers have developed means to point DS1 without
the use of its faulty Star Tracker. Once the new method of pointing the
main antenna at Earth was developed the DS1 team was able to point
the spacecraft toward Earth in January 2000 and download infrared
observations of Mars made by DS1 in November 1999.
The observations are believed to be the best of their kind ever collected.

Now that DS1 is again operable, its mission has been extended to encounter
Comet Borrelly in September 2001.

Deep Space One
is the first deep space mission of NASA's
New Millennium Program.
Deep Space 1 is a New Millennium Program (NMP) demonstration project to
validate advanced technologies while returning science data. Deep Space 1's
mission was to test important, high-risk technologies in order to reduce the
cost and risk of future science missions; "DS1 took the risks so that
future missions would not have to." -
Dr. Mark Raymond's Mission Log

On 1 May 2000,
aerogel
interstellar dust grain collector onboard the Stardust spacecraft will
return to its stowed position for safe storage after having collected
interstellar dust since it was exposed to space on February 22, 2000.
In mid-2002 another period of interstellar dust collection is scheduled.

The dust samples will be brought to Earth for analysis in January 2006.

The primary goal of the Stardust mission is to collect dust
and volatile samples of Comet Wild 2, and samples of interstellar dust
grains, and return the samples to Earth for analysis. The spacecraft
will also send back images of the comet, counts of comet particles striking
the spacecraft and conduct real-time analysis of the compositions of the
particles and volatiles.

Stardust will use a unique substance called aerogel to capture and
preserve the cometary and interstellar materials for return to Earth.

Stardust will be the first space mission ever to return extraterrestrial
material from beyond the orbit of the Moon. Stardust is also the first
U.S. mission dedicated solely to cometary research.